Is Sinnoh just an upgraded version of Hoenn in the anime? Hoenn seems to be some sort of prototype, mostly in terms of the girl who travels with Ash.
>May, just like Dawn, is a young girl who has started her Pokémon journey. But:
>Dawn, even before getting her starter, wanted to become a Contest Coordinator.
>May only decided this after seeing contests.
>Dawn was already preparing for contests from the beginning.
Rivals:
>In Hoenn, Ash didn’t have a rival until Morrison, after the 8th gym. In Sinnoh, Ash met Paul before the first gym.
In Sinnoh
>Cyrus, the boss of the evil team, regularly appeared. In Hoenn, Archie and Maxie appeared only at the end of their respective arcs.
>Cynthia appeared regularly.
>In Hoenn, there was no Champion.
After defeating the 8th gym and losing in the Hoenn League, Ash and the others traveled through Kanto to take on the Battle Frontier and challenge Kanto contests. The problem is that there were too many filler episodes here.

In Sinnoh, the series ended with the Sinnoh League. Both Hoenn and Sinnoh had almost 200 episodes.